The invention relates generally to material-handling equipment, and more particularly to portable equipment that moves particulate and/or slurries using conveyors that can be angled for precise positioning.
Construction workers encounter a wide range of natural and artificial features that define the physical environment of a particular construction site. The workers must accommodate such features in order to complete the construction project, but such accommodation adds to the overall cost of construction. Urban construction sites, for example have limited space, and private property may overlap with public property. Any such circumstances may result in unexpected or undesired costs, such as rent to the municipality or private property owners for use of public or private space for delivery and/or storage of materials.
Construction projects often use fluent materials, which are materials that flow, such as gravel, concrete, soil, mulch, and other bulk material, and the delivery of the same. In a limited space, there must be a process for transferring fluent material from outside of the site into the site or from one area of the construction site to another. The construction worker must ensure that such transfer is done safely and efficiently.
In the existing art, fluent material may be moved in various ways, including in a batch process by a loader scooping the material, driving the loader to another location and dropping the load. Alternatively, a telescoping conveyor may be used to deliver the material from a pile to the location where it is needed. Often such piles are not in the location where the conveyor is or the conveyor cannot reach the location where the material is needed. Furthermore, fluent material is often delivered in one location because the delivery vehicle is able to deliver it to that location, not because that location is where the material is needed.
Prior art machines have been developed that have conveyors on vehicles and on trailers. The conveyors transport fluent material along an endless belt from an infeed location to a deposit location, and can be permanently mounted to a self-propelled bulk transport vehicle or a trailer towed by such a vehicle. Thus, a conveyor can offload bulk material carried by the vehicle itself or a different vehicle. A conveyor having a feed hopper at its distal end is mounted, at its proximal end, on a self-propelled vehicle that requires a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) to transport. Such an arrangement typically also requires substantial space in operation mode to unfold and reposition the feed hopper, which has been compacted for transport over a public roadway. The hopper may be positioned so that a separate bulk transport vehicle, such as a conventional dump truck, can access the feed hopper to offload material directly into the feed hopper.
Conventional machines of the type described above store or transport the conveyor in a compacted “transport mode” in order to comply with transportation rules and regulations, and place such a machine in an expanded “operation mode” at the work site. In order to make the transformation from one mode to the other, the feed hopper must be repositioned. For example, the hopper may be moved to a side of the apparatus, vehicle or trailer, and this step adds substantial width to the equipment's operating footprint. This limits the sites at which such machines can be utilized.
In some cases, the bulk transport vehicle must also be modified so that it can offload into the feed hopper. For example, it has been found useful in the past to add a panel to the tailgate of a conventional dump truck in order to “funnel” the aggregate material into a small feed hopper. In addition, the overall size and configuration of existing machines, in both transport and operation modes, require large available spaces for accessing the site and operating within residential or small urban properties.
Between the purchase price of conventional machines, the costs of operation, and the transport and operating space requirements, conventional machines are generally not economical options for light construction companies. These and other limiting features of the prior art make use in urban construction sites and in landscaping environments very limited and often impossible.
The need exists for a conveyor apparatus that is compact enough to be maneuverable and manageable on tight streets and in residential environments even when relatively little space is available to operate. In addition, the need exists for an apparatus with a feed hopper that enables the receipt and delivery of fluent material without the need to modify the bulk transport vehicle offloading the material.